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NickyPhils

Update on Commute

Well, it looks like I haven't updated this blog in quite some time. I could have been working on it at work, but it's just so tempting to do other things on the Internet. Also, I want to be able to give myself time to write and edit my posts before publishing them. When I'm sitting at the circulation desk, I have no idea how long I have until my supervisor assigns me another task. It could be a few minutes or a few hours. Sometimes I got around this by e-mailing drafts of my posts to myself so I could continue them later, but I just stopped after a while.

So I'll tell you what's been going on since I last wrote. I had been thinking how if I had a bike, I could avoid taking the bus altogether. And just like LoA, on Saturday, June 13, I found a free bike, a Viper, on the street. No, I didn't steal it. It had a sign on it that said "Free: Take me." I was excited that I had a bike now. I could get to work without spending money on the bus, and this was especially convenient because the fares were soon to go up. However, the bike was old and the chain was rusty. So, after finding that WD-40 did not solve the problem, I went to the bike shop and bought a new chain and a lock the next day, planning to bring the bike in another day to have the chain changed.

I brought the bike to the shop on Tuesday, June 16. I found out that there was more wrong than just the chain. The bike needed a tune-up (which would cost $60), new brakes, etc. The guy said to me, "Why don't you just get a new bike?" Buying a new bike was less expensive than fixing the old one, so I ended up buying a used bike, a Peugeot, for $75. If I had to do it again, I admit I would not have bought a new bike, since it was an unnecessary expense that does not really pay for itself. I guess I was vulnerable because I had made my self-image consistent with having a bike, and I had already invested money in a lock and chain. I exchanged the chain for a hat, since they give store credit for returns.

I rode my new bike to the train station that day, and home that night. The next day, however, my butt was really sore and it hurt too much for me to sit on the bike that I chose not to ride it. Instead, I decided I would have to phase it into my commute so that my body would become used to it. I only rode the bike once that week. The next week, I rode it twice, alternating between riding and non-riding days. The next week, I rode it on two consecutive days. The next two weeks, I rode it three consecutive days.

On riding days, I take my bike on the train with me. This is allowed outside of peak hours and outside of peak direction. The first few times, I would stand with my bike for the whole ride. I learned quickly that the doors open on the right side of the train (except at New Rochelle station on the New Haven side), so I should keep my bike on the left side. A few days later, I saw someone else with a bike leave his bike at the door and go sit down. I saw that he had put his bike with one wheel tucked between the wall and a pole, so I began doing that as well. On Wednesday, June 24, a conductor asked me if I had a bike pass. This surprised me because conductors had never asked me for one before. She let me go that time because I had no cash. I suspected she had been lying, but I checked the website, and, lo and behold, I do need a bike pass. I finally paid the $5 for one the next time a conductor asked me for one, on Sunday, July 19. So now I have a receipt for a bike pass, but I still have to go to Window 27 at Grand Central to get the actual card. That's kind of out of my way.

On work days, my diet tends to consist of cereal for breakfast, a sandwich (or Pop Tarts or a Ziploc bag of granola cereal), and macaroni and meatballs for dinner. Sometimes, I have still been hungry after work, so I got a slice of pizza to eat while waiting for the train, since the Fairfield train station has a pizza place. I've noticed that my diet has been high in grain and low in fruit, and sometimes I could tell from my gums that I needed more fruit in my diet. Luckily, I found on Tuesday, June 30 that there is a fruit stand near the Fordham train station. They sell apples 2 for a dollar (3 for a dollar if the apples are a little old), so I bought an apple a few times to eat while waiting for my morning train.

In early-middle July I volunteered to start working on Sundays (1-5 pm) also, to increase my income. This is something I had been considering before, but now I've taken action. Other income streams have come from going to the store when other people are too lazy to and doing homework for people who are too lazy to. The abundance is flowing in, I tell ya. LoA FTW!

This week I noticed that, even though I've been gradually increasing my weekly riding, my butt still hurts as much as it ever did. So I took a break on Tuesday, July 23, after riding two days. My plan was to ride the last two days of my work week, for an overall four this week, but that didn't happen. On Wednesday morning, just after I commented to myself how annoying it is that animals decide to defecate right in front of my backyard gate to which I lock my bike, just like LoA, my bike fell in the mud while I was putting the lock into my backpack. I said, "Fuck my fuckers!" but considered that, since the bike had not landed in animal feces, I could still ride it. As I bent down to pick up the bike, the lock fell out of my open backpack pocket onto the mud; to this I responded, "Shitfoe!" I picked up my lock, but noticed that it had landed in animal feces and exclaimed, "Ah, monkey suck!" I then decided, "I'm not riding this." So I left my bike and lock on the ground and went to work, catching the early train. Good thing I did, because during my hour before work, I got to attend a birthday party in the Dean of Freshman's office.

So today, I cleaned off my bike and lock with the hose. My mom had also convinced me to go to the bike shop on my next day off and get a headlight, a tail light, and a seat cushion. She agreed to compensate me, which is good because I would have screamed "unnecessary expense." So I did that today, and I like the way my bike is now. I also decided to start locking my bike to the gas pipe closer to the front of our yard and away from the animal feces.